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Saturday, October 25, 2007 was the unofficial
local preliminary unveiling of
the monument to honor the late Marine Corps Lt. Col. Michael Murphy
of
Blauvelt.
Michael, who was President Clinton's helicopter pilot, lost his life
in 2000
test piloting the Osprey. The MV-22 Osprey is a tilt rotor aircraft
In 2006, the Rockland Detachment of the Marine Corps League, along
with New
York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly [a Marine], County
Legislator John
Murphy [a Marine], Councilman Denis Troy, Div. 3 of the AOH and
Theresa
O'Rourke held a fundraiser in the Blauvelt Irish American Cultural
Center to
help Michael's Parents, Annie and John, finance the monument to all
eight
Marines who died in 200 testing the aircraft.
The monument was sculptured in Vermont and is now in storage in
Englewood,
New Jersey, awaiting the construction of its foundation on the
campus of the
new Marine Corps museum on the Marine Corps Base in Quantico,
Virginia.
The foundation is expected to be complete around April of 2008 when
the
monument will be officially formally dedicated.
Incidentally, the Osprey only just became operational in June and
is
currently making it combat debut in Iraq. Its development involved
four
crashes and 30 marine deaths in 1991, 1992 and 2000, It is the only
operational aircraft in the world with the vertical lift
capabilities of an
helicopter and the capabilities of a fixed wing aircraft
Photo left to right
Annie and John Murphy [Michael's parents]
Rocco Marino, Commandant, Rockland Detachment
of the Marine Corps League
John Murphy, Rockland County Legislator
George Rath, Chief of Staff, Rockland Detachment of the Marine Corps
League
Congratulations to Gene Erickson for receiving the Elmer Jewell
Award for 2006
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